Because the city’s housing is so expensive, many people end up staying in small homes that hurt their physical and mental health
Lam* is a single mother who lives in a 120 sq ft flat with her son. Photo: Edmond SoVegetables are chopped on the floor. A kitchen is set up in the bathroom. Water leaks through the walls during typhoons. These are some of the struggles for people living in Hong Kong’s subdivided flats.
NGO Social Work Dream invited 32 women living in subdivided flats to share about their lives for a photo exhibition last month. The event showed how these tiny spaces hurt women’s physical and mental health.
Lam Kin-lung is a social worker at the NGO. He explained that women are affected most by the difficulties of living in subdivided flats. This is because women are usually expected to take care of the home, so they spend the most time there.
“Many women often tie their self-worth to the well-being of their families, but the environment in subdivided flats makes it difficult for them to manage,” Lam said.
“We want to bring attention to each individual’s needs ... so that people can understand, with greater empathy, what these women truly need.”
Children’s drawings show life in Hong Kong subdivided flats: homework, meals on the toilet
Living in a subdivided flat
Lam* is a single mother with a seven-year-old son. She handwashes all their clothes because her 120 sq ft home cannot fit a washing machine.
“After placing a basin in the bathroom, there’s barely any space to move. Squatting for long periods leaves my lower back aching and my legs numb,” she shared.
Lam is in her 40s and has waited seven years for public housing. She dreams of a home with separate bedrooms for her and her son.
Lam’s subdivided flat has no room for a wardrobe, so she sleeps between her clothes and her son. She has also given up her hobby of making steamed buns and noodles because she has no kitchen space.
“That’s why so many people end up depressed ... Life is always about calculating costs and making decisions based on money,” she said.
“When you want to do something but are faced with so many limitations, you slowly give up. There’s no choice.”
Alan Din Wai-bun is a lecturer from the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s department of social work. He explained how living in subdivided flats could be harmful for mental health.
Din said: “Many flats lack windows, depriving residents of sunlight and fresh air, which worsens symptoms for those with depression.”
For example, a mother featured in the exhibition has anxiety. The walls of her tiny flat were very thin, and her neighbours were loud. It was difficult for her son to sleep. But when she asked her neighbours to be more quiet, they made mean comments. This worsened her anxiety.
What can be done to fix this?
Many people are talking about the problem of subdivided flats because Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address is on October 16.
Lawmakers and social workers are asking the government to introduce new rules to address the problem of subdivided flats.
Last year, Lee created a task force to decide how subdivided flats can be improved and to find ways to get rid of them in the future.
For Social Work Dream, Lam said the group’s main goal was to speed up the construction of affordable homes. “We want to highlight the urgent need for public housing to both the government and the public, showing how this could impact the entire family,” he said.
* Full name withheld at the request of the interviewee.
Kelly Fung
affordable 負擔得起的
not expensive
depriving 剝奪
to take away something necessary from someone
empathy 同理心
the ability to share and understand the feelings of another person
limitations 遺棄
limits on what someone can do
struggles 掙扎
challenges that someone faces when trying to achieve something
speed up 加快
to make something happen more quickly
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